Sorry, this is a long one, In the early hours on the 17th November 2018, Louey, woke me, unable to move his legs. We rushed to the vets, who diagnosed a blood clot, that would swiftly become very painful, and was realistically, untreatable. My Louey, Lucifer-Kitten, Lucifer-Cretin, Lucifer- mittens, Princess, ginger monkey…. I love you and miss you more than I can expressOn the Evening of the 5th March 2007, Lucifer arrived in my life, covered in oil and purring like a tractor

It really did feel like fate, I needed a cat and the most amazing friend I could ever have wished for arrived. He was a total monkey, I remember coming home one day to find that he had knocked my razor into the bath and had spent an enjoyable time batting it around the bath, causing a very small cut on his paw. I came home to a scene from a horror film- bloody pawprints everywhere…but Louey fast asleep and angel faced.He was a monkey, he was always interested in what I was doing, rooted through tradepeoples toolboxes, used any flatpack furniture I was building as a temporary climbing frame. He watched me cook and garden, he helped me pack. When I met my partner, Louey approved him by sprawling across his chest within hours, which was extremely unlike him. He was so smart too, I saw him once jangle the back door keys, stand on the handle and look confused when it didn’t open. He also worked out light switches, there was one he could reach and he would flick it off and then look at me to see if I reacted. He loved cleaning my hair, when I stopped him he started cleaning it while I slept, pulling it under the bed to reach the ends. He was always waiting at the window when I came home, we realized how ill he was when he couldn’t do this anymore.Louey was always a confident charmer, he had to stay in at the vets for a day once and when I went to collect him, he absoloutely stank of perfume and had clearly spent the day cuddled up with some other woman! He took the 2 hour drive to the Hyperthyroid centre like it was a day on the sofa and arrived at the centre with full ladies man charm turned on, rubbing against things and all alert and interested. I don’t think it ever crossed his mind that I would leave him- he knew I would be back.When he was young, he had a blue shark toy he carried about, and a rope toy whose head I would forever find in the food bowl (I guess it looked skinny??) lately, it was some balls that had sisal rope on them that were the favourite, the night before he passed I showed him one of these and he was so happy, he kicked it once and then just sat on it, looking happy.He was always polite. He communicated that he wanted something with significant looks- sit by the food bowl and look significantly at the empty bowl=feed me. Sit by the door and look significantly at the outside =let me out. Sit by the door and look significantly at the sofa=let me. Sit in the middle of the floor and look significantly at me= cuddles. He woudnt jump up on your lap until you patted it or smacked your lips, then he would toss his head and be straight there. If I was busy, and didn’t look at him, sometimes he would sneak on to my lap, id just look down and he would be there fast asleep. He talked a lot, mam-mau to greet me, wow-wow-wow to tell off, mau? When he knew there was chicken in the fridge and I was closing the fridge door (and had not heeded the significant look) prrrrrp and chirrups conversationally and so much purring. He could always be counted on to be asleep in whatever room I was in, he would follow me round the garden and the house, this summer, he took to sleeping in the courgette patch. If I was sick, he was Velcro cat and he always looked so happy.A few years aso, he went off his food and went downhill really quick, at the vets, while he was being given injections, one was particularly painful and he bit into the thing infront of his face, on reflex I think. The thing infront of his face was my finger and he bit into the joint, this developed into a tendon sheath infection and require intravenous antibiotics and surgery. Louey also didn’t respond to the treatment and was taken back into the vets- possibly pancreatitis- I was frantic at the hospital that I couldn’t visit him.Last summer, he started jumping up onto my shoulders, his personal climbing frame- even standing on my head! So that he could see further (ginger monkey)He never wanted to be under a blanket with me, until the last few weeks, when he surprised me by spurning the heated bed and wanting to cuddle up with me…I think we all knew we were running out of time together.Last summer, we thought he was hyperthyroid but his bloods came back in the high end of normal, in march this year he went off his food and after various testing and treatment he was again testing and diagnosed Hyperthyroid. After we had settled his thyroids with tablets, we booked him in for Radioactive Iodine. But he had developed a cough, occasional at first but more frequent. We had to video it as even when in the vets for a weekend he didn’t cough. Nothing shifted it and the hyperthyroid had encouraged his weight to drop from 4kg to 3.5kg so the vet was reluctant to xray- fix the hyperthyrpid, get his weight back up then risk the anaesthetic. He had the Radioactive Iodine treatment, came back home and completed his quarantine periods with minimum fuss- but still had the cough. His weight was now 3.25kg. The vets thought it might be scar tissue from the treated thyroid causing the cough, so we waited and watched, while treating everything else anyone could think of- lungworm, worms, acid reflux, flu, furball. It would appear to improve and then come back. Then one evening, he coughed and afterwards was breathing open mouthed so we took him straight into the emergency vets who ultrasounded his heart while we held him, just stretching his head up made him cough. His heart was the right size and no fluid around the hearts. He was kept in over night with a course of steroids. By the next morning he was so improved, the vets were convinced it was asthma and steroids were the answer. But 1 week later he was coughing again so we changed the dose and then he stopped responding so we changed the steroid and then tried both long acting and short acting steroids together. When these became ineffective, we Xrayed and found that his left lung was not filling with air. We were told that it was almost certainly a tumour and that Loueys time was limited. A biopsy was inconclusive so grasping at straws, we asked for the xray to be sent to a specialist. Their report said that his heart was too big and that his liver was inflamed but the mass blocking air into his lung may be mucus or abcess or tumour and they recommended a CT scan. The earliest date we could get for the CT scan was 21st November. With a pretty terminal diagnosis, our vet agreed to give him a high dose of steroids, with a cocktail of other things and he really perked up for a few days, we had a lovely day were he was his old self, purring like a tractor and all over me. For the next few weeks we tried again to recreate this. We had managed to keep his weight above 3.2Kg but couldn’t get it higher.We were staying at my parents house while our house was rewired so were sleeping in the same room as louey, Friday 16th November I went to sleep with Louey on my chest, we had made him a set of steps to get on and off the bed and he had started sleeping on me at night. I woke up suddenly about 2.30am,Louey did something to wake me but im not sure what and I became immediately aware that he wasn’t moving properly. I realized he wasn’t moving his back legs but he was agitated and moving about. We went to emergency vets who sadly showed us that his back legs were cold and his pads white, his front legs warm and the pads dark pink…..It was a blood clot blocking blood flow into his legs, it would become more and more painful (he had yowled in the car while we waited for the vet) and there would be little they could do for the pain. Treatment had a low success rate, and the clot often reoccurs. I know he had a happy life, I know he felt loved and I know he loved me. He fought so hard to stay. I miss the colour of him